A Certain Disastrous Investigation
by cardinalexorcist
Summary: After the chaos in Hawaii, most of those involved return to Academy City, but peace does not return. Worst has gone missing and a foreign politician's double is missing. Mugino Shizuri and Kuroyoru Umidori task themselves with discovering the connection between the two and handling the situation personally. Meanwhile, two mysterious figures appear. This can only mean disaster.
1. I) Calm Before the Storm

A certain group that lived within Academy City had once been a major part of the futuristic city's 'dark side', but currently, they are not performing any particular duties. Instead, they spent much of their time doing various things of no real importance throughout their daily lives while living together in a single apartment.

Incidentally, that group was known as 'ITEM'.

Several things had happened between the members of the group within the past couple months; such as one member being killed, two members falling in love and fleeing to Russia (from yet another member), and even one member being nearly killed before having to replace certain body parts with artificial substitutes.

However, that was all behind them, for the most part. They were able to get along well enough recently without any serious worries. In fact, the most pressing concern within the last few day was the fact that Hamazura Shiage, who functioned more as a slave than a real member, had disappeared for a little over a day to visit Hawaii all of the sudden, leaving behind Takitsubou Rikou—his girlfriend. Promptly after returning, he was forced to pacify her rage by bringing her out to dinner and doing other date-like things.

Coincidentally, the small girl that ITEM was currently taking care of due to several circumstances was also peeved with Hamazura's unexpected absence, so he was forced to bring her along, which didn't help his situation with the first case whatsoever.

This left the last two remaining members of ITEM alone in the apartment, creating a peaceful atmosphere of boredom.

"Since those two went out, all of this food is definitely going to go to waste." Mugino Shuzuri sighed absently as she continued to cook in the decently sized kitchen within the apartment, using enough ingredients and cooking methods to create a dinner for ten. Despite knowing no one was around to eat it, she didn't hesitate to use all of the ingredients for the sake of performing as many minor functions as possible. It was necessary in order to perform her regular maintenance on her artificial arm, which had been blown away by her own power along with her right eye. "Although things might not work out for them and they'll storm home early in an awkward silence without eating. I guess they won't have an appetite in that case, though."

"Don't super worry about those two." Kinuhata Saiai grinned at Mugino over the couch with triumph, turning her back to the television that was currently displaying several consecutive commercials. She had a magazine held in one hand, having taken it from the pile lying on the dinner table. "The movie I sent them off to see is perfect, made by a genius director in Europe. There is no way they can resist the epic romance that even impressed a super movie fan like me!"

"I'm surprised you were so willing to send them to a movie you hold in such high opinion. Since when did you support those two as an item?"

"Well, I still think Hamazura is super Hamazura-y. There is no cure for that. But Takitsubou was super bummed when he disappeared in Hawaii and even I winced at the pathetic souvenir Hamazura tried to bring her. So I just super had to give a helping hand by introducing them to this director's work."

"I guess that's fine then. In any case, you're really obsessed with this director, aren't you?"

"It's not that I'm 'obsessed'. I did some research on her and found out that she's super young, having created work that challenges even veteran film makers. I bet she'll be super famous when she's older, so I'm keeping an eye on her now to prove how perceptive I am to have discovered her early."

This tomboyish girl with short hair only showed this sort of passion when it came to movies. Not just any, though—she held love only for C-rated theater, for whatever reason. It was childish, especially considering what sort of world she lived in, but it was true that everyone had their quirks.

"There's just one thing I don't get." Kinuhata continued as her gaze drifted toward the food that was slowly gathering in the kitchen, looking appetizing and well made. "You've become super good at cooking by now, but you still eat bento, don't you? Why don't you super make something more glamorous than something commonly bought at supermarkets?"

"Nobody eats this much food aside from during special occasions. Do I come across as the sort of person who'd eat impressive looking dishes just because I can?"

"Well I guess it's true that you have to super watch your body as a member of the female species. We can't let Takitsubou-san continue to be ahead in the game when she's wasting herself on Hamazura."

"Speaking of which, no matter where I look on the net for recipes, there's always at least one hinting at wielding the power to increase your breast size. They're all useless, of course. In the interest of remaining healthy and fit, you have to abandon the idea of increasing the size of just one area with fat."

"It must be a conspiracy against us girls."

"Probably."

Mugino casually pushed aside the last plate of meat she made and yawned as she rolled her left shoulder. Rather than worrying about her joints, it was just an effort to flex her fake arm for one last check.

"Kinuhata, I'm going to shower and head out soon. The facility I rarely go to wants to perform an examination on my ability, and I want to get it over with quickly.

"You're going to that district, right?" Kinuhata grabbed hopped off of the couch with ease and dug through the pile of magazines quickly before finding the one she was searching for. She flipped it open to the page she wanted fairly quickly, as if she'd been ready to find it, and nodded after seeming to confirm something. "A theater near there is going to be super showing a movie in the 'mystery' genre I was thinking about seeing. It's sort of your basic super detective-style kind of thing. It's showing right before your appointment, so if it's super cool with you, we can watch it before you go."

"So long as I'm not late, I don't mind. It'll let me kill some time."

With that, the two girls headed off to get ready to head out. Their conversation was eerily meaningless and the atmosphere was completely lazy, so it gave one the misleading sense that they were your common roommates. However, the two were well-aware that from the moment that they stepped outside—or even while they stayed in the room—there was the constant chance of an idiot attacking them out of nowhere.

The fact that they could calmly live out their lives nonetheless was a testament to their skill for having survived so long. With the power to handle a sniper alone or the power to turn a tank to scrap metal, only the higher tier of dangerous enemies could pose a threat to them.

They were two veterans of 'Graduates' from the Dark Side, after all.

* * *

Kuroyoru Umidori was uncomfortable.

District 10 was exactly what one would expect of a 'back alley underground district'. It was well known that this district was basically the slums of Academy City. It received the least care and was probably the only real blindside of the city, unseen by any cameras or security robots. Though it was the middle of the day, the entire street Kuroyoru walked through was shaded by hundreds of tarps placed over head, stretching from building to building. The street smelled like cigarette smoke and other malevolent air pollutants. It was a commercial district at heart, so all the stores were open with shady looking people visible in each one or loitering right outside the doors. There was no doubt in her mind that these stores were not selling anything legally, though at first glance they were simply normal stores with suspicious auras.

What was impressive was that they could all gather so easily in one place. It was doubtful that you would see this anywhere else in Academy City. This was probably the only street like this in the whole district, too. If Anti-Skill suddenly burst in for a raid, they'd find all goldmine of illegal substances. But at the same time, these people were prepared to fade away in the shortest amount of time while using a superficial cover that would buy them enough time. Either way, something like this could only happen due to the neglect of the authorities, so a sudden raid was pretty unlikely.

That is, unless some jackass doesn't cover their tracks and gives the authorities a reason to visit these slums. Though that would be pretty hilarious to watch in its own right.

The street reeked of darkness and was probably the most congested form of it that you could find without looking too hard. It was far from practical in any way, but it was darkness all the same. As someone who embraced and voluntarily lived in the 'dark side', Kuroyoru felt right at home.

So her reasons for feeling uncomfortable were unrelated to the setting. She had the strangest feeling that she was being watched—and not just by one pair of eyes. She kept glancing around without moving too much or letting anyone notice she was looking, but she could not catch anyone's eyes on her. Nonetheless, she was positive she was being watched by the shady people around her. Possibilities flew through her head—they'd been warned she was coming, they were all conspiring to help the kidnappers, they were mistaking her for someone else, or maybe they knew about her due to a separate incident. All sorts of possibilities, all baseless.

Nonetheless, Kuroyoru didn't dare to throw any of them out. If she wasn't careful, she'd probably be stabbed in the back, caught unawares. She knew all too well how cold and merciless the underworld could be. Even the people who supposedly 'cared' for her in recent days didn't try too hard to stop her from going back to work once she'd returned from Hawaii. Granted, she'd made sure to keep it a secret from Hamazura Shiage, who was the most bothersome of them all. She preferred to retain her independence and continue her work as the foremost member of Freshman.

Her most recent job was pretty simple. A man had been kidnapped by a political group who opposed whatever work the man did. She wasn't sure of the details, mostly because they didn't matter. Her subordinates had gone ahead to secure the man while putting down the self-righteous group of kidnappers and wait for her to arrive to escort the man to a predetermined area.

Kuroyoru had donned the white trench coat that she normally wore with only the hood hanging from her head, instead wearing it properly to hide her body that normally gave off a 'black' color scheme. She pulled the hood over her head to hide her face as well as giving her stuffed dolphin something to hang onto, though it was uncertain how it was sticking.

Since she could not decide what was giving her such a bad feeling, she continued on through the state, ignoring the random men who tried to sell her various useless things, not even bothering to threaten them out of irritation. She'd attempted to contact her subordinates several times since entering the street, but had received no answer. She wasn't necessarily worried about them, but couldn't understand what had gone wrong. Her men weren't the sort to cave under anything but the fiercest pressure. She'd be ripping their fingernails off one by one if she learned that they had been defeated by a group of powerless self-righteous terrorists who weren't even supposed to be all that impressive.

After taking several turns according to her gps, she found herself outside the supposed terrorist hideout, which was a featureless door on the side of a building within an alleyway, also covered by several tarps to shade the route from the sunlight.

"The fuck is this?"

Kuroyoru spat irritably at the sight before her. Men in casual clothing that were meant to blend in were scattered across the ground before her, each and every body showing signs of having been beaten by some sort of heavy object. Several metal bats, crowbars, guns, and other typical street fighting tools were on the ground with them, each one broken or bent horribly out of shape, as if these men had attacked the buildings with them like a bunch of idiots.

What bothered her was that fact that, despite the similar lack of defining features all of these men had, she recognized many of them while not knowing many others. This meant that half of them were her subordinates. Naturally, the other half must have been the opposing terrorist group.

Obviously, they hadn't had some epic fight and wound up in a draw after knocking each other out. They weren't dead—they'd been knocked unconscious. Judging by the pools of blood forming from their head wounds, they had been haphazardly knocked out by a blunt object belonging to a third party.

However, the only man present who was still conscious was not holding any such weapon.

He was a tall man wearing jeans and a hoodie. The hood was up and his back was too Kuroyoru, so she could not see his face, but she knew he was not normal from the way he stood over the unconscious bodies. His body language told her that he was a skillful fighter with lots of experience, but that gave no clue as to his motive.

Not that Kuroyoru really cared about his motive.

"Hey, jackass. Are you the one who did all this?"

The man responded to the sound of her voice by turning in her direction, displaying the ceramic clown mask he wore to hide his features behind a creepy misleading smile.

"You're pretty late. You'll never accomplish your job if you're not fast enough. Arriving quickly enough can save a life. Arriving too late is the same as eliminating a life yourself."

"Heh!" Kuroyoru spat as a mocking scowl appeared on her face. "So I'm going to be lectured by a stranger with a creepy mask? As if I care what you have to say! I'm going to rip your flesh from your bone either way, so you'd better talk while you can, before you're only screaming in pain!"

Kuroyoru whipped her hand out and a hydrogen lance sprouted from her palm, extending a couple meters out to cause a small interruption in the stagnated state of the air around them that reeked of smoke, alcohol, trash, and other various things.

The man in the hoodie immediately kicked up a crowbar with one foot and snatched it out of midair to swing it at her brutally. Kuroyoru easily slashed it to pieces with a casual swing of her hydrogen lance and sent the dangerous weapon in the man's direction. He narrowly managed to avoid the full brunt of the attack by twisting his body in a complicated fashion while kicking off of the nearby wall, narrowly letting his back hover directly above the slash for a brief moment before he landed on the ground on all fours.

He immediately hopped back as Kuroyoru continued to swing the hydrogen lance without much care, slashing through the walls of the narrow space between the two buildings, cutting up the door and digging random symbols into the walls. She had decided against aiming directly for the man's vital point since she thought it would be more interesting to let a random strike hit him and let fate or luck kill him or save him.

She only did this because she wanted to see just how skillful he was in combat. Against her level 4 Bomber Lancer, no normal person stood a chance close range, so she had no reason to worry about a counter-attack.

The man's combat ability was impressive, clear from the fact that he hadn't died immediately. Kuroyoru was willing to admit the possibility of him taking both sides out by blind siding them suddenly, but still had her doubts about his chances if they all attacked him at once. You'd need martial arts on par with an ancient Chinese master to handle so many people at once, and you only saw those sorts of things in the movies.

It was as Kuroyoru was bitterly considering this when he was abruptly struck back in the most surprising manner. She'd expected him to perform some predictably idiotic move without thinking due to being cornered, but that didn't include the chance of him smacking her left hand that held her hydrogen bomb away with his own gloved hand.

The force of his sudden attack easily sent her attack flying in the opposite direction she intended it to, slashing through the nearby wall with ease. However, his hand had not been sliced off as soft flesh and material should have been. He gripped the other hand tightly as he stepped in like a pro fighter, preparing to send his left hook into her gut to knock her out.

Kuroyoru stopped playing around by that point. This man obviously had some sort of power, and she'd be in trouble if she underestimated him without knowing what it was.

She immediately kicked her foot out into the man's chest to put him off balance and push him back slightly, forcing his punch to miss as he corrected his stance. In the next moment, she exploded her hydrogen bomb directly into his torso mercilessly.

She was once again surprised. Rather than been torn to shreds by the attack, the man remained in one piece as he slammed into the wall behind him, smashing through it like he was a wrecking ball.

Kuroyoru flexed her hand in wonder at the phenomena. Her attack that time definitely landed and the power didn't seem any less destructive than normal, so his power couldn't have been to decrease the strength of her attacks.

Whatever it was, she'd learn more by firing more Bomber Lances at him.

Kuroyoru stepped toward the rubble and summoned lances from both of her palms as she glared into the hole she'd sent the man through. She was unsurprised to see him standing, but he didn't look entirely unharmed. He was slouching more than before and something about the way his raised hands twitched slightly involuntarily showed the possibility that he was feeling pain from his landing.

"Hold on." He said with a forcefully leveled voice as he waved his hands in front of him as if to call a time out. "You're part of Freshman, right? We're not enemies."

"Why the hell would I believe that pitiful and desperate lie?" Kuroyoru spat irritably, slightly disappointed by how quickly he caved in. "Are you that positive you won't be able to run with your tail between your legs? Not like I blame you, though."

"I'm serious. Just think about it for a moment; your men aren't the only ones knocked out, right? And your target isn't here, is he?"

"I was thinking about asking those questions while testing how long that strange shield of yours would last with a barrage of point blank hydrogen lances. You're working for some third-party bastards who want in on the action, right?"

"Hardly. I'm just a passing guy with morals, so I lent a hand. Some of your men already fled with that politician while I stayed behind the handle these bastards."

"So you knocked out my subordinates because most of them decided to give you a hard time about trusting you?"

"Very perceptive."

"Those pansies might be good for something after all, if they decided to distrust you rather than just depend on you. Even if it got their asses kicked." Kuroyoru cackled as she lowered her arms while extinguishing her lances. "I bet you'll tell me the reason I can't kill you now is because you have to lead me to the target and my remaining men, right?"

"That's part of it. But even if you ignore that, you wouldn't be able to kill me even if you tried. I'm pretty confident in my survival abilities."

Nothing in the man's voice indicated that he was lying, but Kuroyoru didn't trust him either way. But killing him now and killing him later wouldn't have made much of a difference—he had information she needed, so she'd play along to get as much of it as she could.

"Whatever keeps you from cutting yourself at night." Kuroyoru shrugged indifferently. "Just get moving and take me to the target. If you can't convince me fast, I'll kill your ass anyways."

* * *

...

…I have absolutely no idea how many 'supers' to use per paragraph. There; I said it!

This is the first chapter of the second part of my story in-progress. The first part was 'A Certain Dangerous Experiment', which can be found on this site. For those of you who have read it and don't see the relationship between this story and the plot from the last; just go along with it for now and enjoy reading. I've got everything planned out to make sense eventually, so speculate all you want if you so wish.

The main character spot will be predominantly shared by Kuroyoru and Mugino. Why? Because it works out nicely. And frankly, I like Kuroyoru's design. This story is going to be sort of like Baccano and Hoodwinked in that there are as many stories as there are people involved. Or, as a wise frog once said; "If a tree falls in the forest, there will be three stories. Yours, mine and the tree's. *animal crowd laughs*" Getting all these characters properly involved is the real challenge. I want to make this feel like it is something that happened in a canon but is omitted from the main novels, sort of like an SS. So expect a lot of character interaction and convoluted plot.

Which brings me to the topic of date. I don't know if I gave you a date before, but I said A Certain Dangerous Experiment took place between NT3 and NT5-after Hawaii and before Ichihanaransai. In other words, during Baggage City, though that's technically incorrect. NT4 took place in just one day-November 13th. Hawaii took place on November 10th, and since A Certain Dangerous Experiment only took a day as well, I figured November 12th would be the day. Unless I'm mistaken, I think the only thing we know for sure about Ichihanaransai is that it takes place in mid November, which I assume is anywhere from the 15th and on. A Certain Disastrous Investigation takes place on November 14th. Depending on information to come and how I feel, I may assume Ichihanransai takes place on the 15th or 16th. Why is that so important (aside from giving me an extra day for plot to take place)? Meh. You'll see.


	2. II) Sharp Inquisition

"Kisaragi-san, I understand that you love that uniform, but please understand that summer is long since over! Everyone is supposed to be wearing the winter uniform already, and yet you insist on keeping the same wardrobe!"

"Listen to me well, for I will explain but once! This uniform is a part of me! It is my label! It is what I am! When people see me, they expect these clothes to be worn! It is not a simple matter of the season or time of year. The weather is fifty degrees too warm to make me deign to wear something warmer!"

"We go through this every year! It doesn't _matter_ how cold it is, or what character you've imposed on yourself! The fact is, it's winter! And no one else cares what you wear! You can't just ignore school rules for your own convenience!"

"Such logic only works for the conforming masses—"

Mugino sighed heavily as she tuned out the unnecessary noise, losing interest in the meaningless argument that occurred on the campus of the school she was visiting.

She didn't go to this school, but she had been 'invited' to the facility on the campus that specialized in her ability. Level 5s all had their personal facilities made just to study their ability. Often enough, they were set up in various areas across Academy City, so it was natural that she would sometimes have to travel a bit to reach a few of them. Not that she enjoyed such trips.

But this trip had been somewhat worth it. On the way here, she'd gone to the movie theater with Kinuhata to watch a recommended detective movie. Mugino had not been all too interested in the crappy set up and terrible plot twist—frankly, she couldn't understand why Kinuhata enjoyed the C-rated movies so much—but the concept had somehow affected something deep inside that which made Mugino Shizuri.

Mystery…no, detectives in general. At least, the good ones. Mugino had been a part of the dark side for a long while, so she'd seen all sorts of things. However, since the very beginning, her thought process had fallen along the lines of 'because I am part of the dark side, these things happen'. Fighting, bloodshed, death, betrayal…these things happened all around her in various forms. She'd been the cause of many such situations in the lives of others. However, it was different for detectives. They didn't get involved with such things because they lived a life that came with it. No—they were simply people who seemed to draw incidents toward them like magnets. Murders, ghost haunting, century old curses, missing people…these typical and common plots seemed to flock conveniently toward detectives and detectives seemed to have a knack for solving them in the end, no matter how difficult it may seem.

Which brought Mugino to what bothered her the most. Why were the people who were the cause of such mysteries so bad at hiding them? Why couldn't they hide their tracks and commit their crimes properly? Why couldn't they perform so flawlessly, the case would never reach the detective? She knew she was overthinking it from a movie's perspective, but when one thought about it realistic, the same answer could be used in both situations.

Without the mystery, there would be no story.

If a crime was perfectly done, then the authorities would never know. No crying damsel would visit the hero's house in the middle of the night, requesting for aid. No letter would come in the mail, detailing the situation.

The perfect crime was one that never happened.

But once one started searching where no crime should have existed, wouldn't something eventually surface? A buried mystery so perfectly hidden, no one would find it otherwise?

The idea seemed ridiculous, but Mugino knew that looks could be deceiving. She regarded each building around her with mild suspicion and glanced at the faces of who she passed with wonder. They were all strangers to her, but they all had their stories. Perhaps one had just finished hiding a dead body. Perhaps another had just cashed in several stolen gold watches. One could say that the odds were low. But another could say that the odds still existed, and thus, so did the possibility.

"Agh…" Mugino muttered irritably as she scratched her scalp angrily as she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. "Why should I give a damn about this sort of thing, anyways? It's not as if that movie was even good. I already know Academy City has a bunch of stuff that it doesn't want the world knowing—I've seen my share of it."

Mugino shook her head back and forth as she tried to shake the pointless thoughts out of her head, but her curiosity held fast. To put it frankly, she was interested. She knew that the only way to get rid of the interest was to satiate it by pursuing a mystery—any mystery.

So, unconsciously, her eyes began to move against her will, searching for anything out of the ordinary. Or something perfectly normal that was made abnormal by the mere fact that it was hiding something. Using that line of thinking, anything would come across as suspicious.

Mugino was standing beside an empty playground that didn't seem to be a part of any particular school—it was a public commodity that anyone could use as they please. Mugino had agreed to meet Kinuhata here after her check-up was finished, though there was still time until the agreed hour arrived.

Hovering in the air above the district was a blimp that was mostly likely completely automatic, due to the common unmanned nature of many of Academy City's public service jobs. Considering the majority of the city's population belonged to students, there weren't all too many adults who weren't teachers or researchers who worked in the city. It would no doubt cause some economic trouble if the city of technology could not create machines to do simple jobs like float a blimp around aimlessly.

This blimp showed the current time along with the weather for the day—commonplace information. Even if Mugino tried, it would be difficult to fairly find something wrong there.

Next, her eyes visited a large electronic board placed over a nearby building.

Academy City was basically closed off from the rest of Japan, so most people wouldn't know much about Tokyo, let alone any other important cities, such as Kyoto or Akihabara. So most people—aside from certifiable otakus, such as Kinuhata, who would know such things through the internet—wouldn't know that this district that focused on electronic appliances and the like was made to resemble what Akihabara would be like before the anime culture took a hold of it.

The large screen that was mounted on the building displayed recent news for people who were too lazy to look on their phones, as most events within Academy City were posted on the forums and message boards. It was convenient and added to the futuristic nature of Academy City.

Perhaps it was due to Mugino's current state of mind, but her fake eye focused on the screen with an unusual amount of attention, long before her actual brain cared enough to register the words rolling across the screen. Once she actually paid attention, however, it caught her attention in a firm grip.

_A politician from a foreign country had been visiting in order to view the Ichiharan festival before performing negotiations with Academy City's Board of Directors in regards to a liaison between the groups. Details are uncertain, however the politician's double had been kidnapped at 6:00 am. Authorities are currently in search of this man, as well as any clues toward the culprits. However, it is unsure when the double was even kidnapped or by whom, and there is no certain motive that can be identified. If you have any information regarding this man or any suspects, please—_

Mugino folded her arms across her chest as she frowned in discontent as she considered what she'd just read. Something about it didn't sit right with her. Call it her intuition, but she was certain she'd accidently stumbled on something.

Perhaps she had the same aura as a detective who naturally drew cases to himself? Probably not. That was not even something to joke about. Curious or not, she wasn't going to become an idiot who mixed up reality and fiction. This was purely pragmatic just so she'd experience for herself. That way, her interests would vanish, like a small puddle facing the blazing hot midday sun.

Mugino's eyes drifted toward the playground once more, a bit of purpose now behind her actions. Two people were currently by the swing set, though neither of them seemed to be playing. One was a young man wearing a suit in a casual manner, with the tie loose and the black jacket open. He had large goggle-like glasses that seemed to avoid giving him a nerdy appearance as he pointed in the direction of the large screen with an expression that made Mugino certain he was asking questions.

The other was a young handsome man with a kind face, wearing a school uniform that was basically a tan suit and a red tie, though he wore white sneakers. Unlike his companion, he wore the outfit properly with the buttons up and the tie centered and he had a very neat and orderly appearance around him that gave him a sense of innocence.

Both looked up the moment they noticed Mugino approaching. The one in the tan suit didn't seem alarmed as he raised an eyebrow curiously, but the other's reaction was entirely different. He seemed to register her approach firmly and his expression changed entirely. But it wasn't the change in expression that bothered Mugino. It was the fact that the expression changed the way he did, as if he made a decision after seeing her face.

In other words, he did not turn around and leave because someone was approaching and it just so happened to be Mugino Shizuri. Rather, he made the decision to leave so abruptly based on the fact that it was Mugino Shizuri who was approaching.

"Hey, Goggles!" Mugino's voice raised immediately as a vein on her temple popped, heat rising to her face immediately. "Get back here! Where the hell do you think you're running off to?! I need to talk to you—DON'T START RUNNING, YOU BASTARD! I KILLED ANOTHER BASTARD WITH GOGGLES, AND I'LL FRY YOU TOO!"

Four small lights appeared around Mugino as her fury raged, as if fireflies were materializing as physical forms of her anger. Another moment, and she would completely reduce the playground nothing in an effort to keep her word when her target continued running. But after she remembered what happened the last time she tried to kill someone who was running way while blinded by her fury, she hesitated for a moment, which was enough to let the young man in the black suit escape her sights, though she would probably be able to find him easily by carving a path toward him with her Meltdowner beams.

Instead, she simply sighed as the 'fireflies' vanished, as if they were never there. She instead turned to the one in the tan suit, who was observing her with curious expression on his face, his small frown showing that he was thinking carefully. She had to give him some credit for not running like an idiot when he saw her about to explode. That would probably set her off again and get him fried without a warning.

"Who was that guy?"

"I thought you knew him." The young man shrugged honestly when Mugino glared at him when she heard his response. "He didn't give me a name."

"Oh? So you're not acquainted with him, either?" Mugino snorted in disbelief, not trusting this guy's good natured smile for even a moment. He appeared far too 'normal' to be normal. He reeked of darkness—Mugino would never mistake such a familiar stench. "Then what were you talking about?"

"This and that. Mostly that."

Mugino's eyebrow twitched at the vague response, but she let it go. It wasn't as if she really cared.

"So, what can I do for you? I guess whatever question you had for him can be directed toward me, since you don't know him any better than you know me, right?"

"Ah, right." Mugino rested a hand on her hip as she looked this young man up and down. "What should I call you?"

The man's response came a beat late, so he was probably deciding how to respond.

"Normally you begin by introducing yourself when you ask for someone's name."

"Name? I just want a way to refer to you, unless you don't mind me just saying 'you' all the time. Just call me Mugino."

"I see. Well then…yes, how about you just call me Unabara?"

His tone was too even and calm. He was being cautious around her without outwardly showing it, apparently wary of what she'd ask. His expression was now a casual smile that seemed good-natured, but Mugino knew he was using to hide his thoughts. If he gave her trouble, Mugino could easily force any information out of him by blowing off his limbs one at a time. But if he tried to hide something, that would be a good way to confirm her suspicions on their own.

"Tell me what you know about that."

Mugino pointed toward the screen in the background, referring to what the two had seemed to be talking about before.

"Ah…"

Unabara barely glanced in that direction, only blinking once in an irregular fashion to expression his surprise. His smile never faltered.

"That's funny. That other one had asked about the same thing. I suppose it must look like I know something, since I was regarding the screen so intensely."

"'The other one'?" Mugino repeated as her eyes veered up in thought for a moment, barely recalling the face of the person she'd nearly killed. "Oh, you mean him."

"Yes. So you really aren't acquaintances? How ironic."

"Then just tell me everything you told him."

"Sure." Unabara replied amiably without a change in expression. "Absolutely nothing."

Absolutely…nothing. That had been what he told the man before Mugino had arrived, and that had been what he told Mugino.

Naturally, she didn't let that go easily. She'd sent a Meltdowner beam to cross the short meter that was spanning between the two, but he was apparently very nimble. He barely evaded the beam and kicked up mulch into her face at the same time, throwing off Mugino's aim as she tried to send a second beam in his direction. Immediately afterward, he'd smartly escape using some method she was unsure of.

For whatever reason, she couldn't find him again, even as she tried to chase after him. Once she was certain she wouldn't find him nearby easily, she'd begun searching the security cameras. But strangely enough, they could not find Unabara's nicely combed dark hair anywhere.

Had he simply vanished?

"Ugh." Mugino folded her arms over her chest after she returned to the playground. Her errant Meltdowner beams had reduced to swing set to…well, nothing, so she leaned against the many metal bars that made up the half-globe that kids loved to play 'King of the Mountain' on all the time. She was mostly mad at herself for letting two sources of information escape so easily, though she was mostly annoyed that she didn't understand how the second one had escaped. She was sure both were involved somehow, but wasn't sure exactly how that was.

Next time, she'd blow their legs off the moment she spotted them. That way, they wouldn't be able to run away so quickly.

In any case, she'd at least gotten one answer. There was a somewhat good chance that her reasoning was correct. At the very least, things were not as simple and straight forward as they appeared at first. It seemed she'd caught the faint scent of something she was not supposed to find.

The only problem…well, it probably wasn't right to call it a 'problem'. It was better to refer to it as a somewhat restrictive circumstance. In any case, the only thing was that if she decided to take any action, there was a chance that she'd be butting heads with the wrong people. It was obvious that the dark side was involved—she didn't care about that. Any weirdoes who got in her way would be dealt with easily. But there was a chance that this was somehow connected to the Board of Directors—no, she was absolutely positive they were involved, but she wasn't sure how.

Well, to be fair, she wasn't going to take sides either way. She only planned to investigate things on a whim. And even if it came to taking sides, it was the original purpose of ITEM to prevent certain directors from gaining too much power. In the interest of checks and balances, her actions may take a positive effect.

Though it wasn't like ITEM was active. It was more of an excuse than anything else.

Mugino's thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a short haired, tomboyish girl with a casual gait, walking toward playground without showing any signs of embarrassment toward the fact that a girl her age shouldn't be heading to such a place in broad daylight where anyone could see without any shame on her face.

"Hey, Mugino. Mind if I ask you a super quick question? 'What do you think of funerals?' is the simplest way to super put it, I guess."

* * *

...

It feels a bit odd, writing with Mugino in calm scenes...with the occasional burst of energy. It feels a bit out of character without Frenda or Hamazura around to abuse.

Mugino doesn't really fit the character who'd stumble upon an amazing secret by accident or because of their coincidental whim. It's true. That sort of thing fits heroes, like Kamijou-san or Sogiita Gunha. Maybe even Hamazura. But considering the life she's had, she must be just as capable as Accelerator at sniffing out this sort of thing. How she handles it, however, will definitely be different. If she continues playing the investigator, I swear, someone's going to die...

Next time, we'll learn just what is bothering Mugino so much, aside from another goggle-wearing freak. That, and some irony will become apparent. Look forward to it.


	3. III) Shrewd Deliberation

Kinuhata Saiai hopped onto the beginning of the cobblestone path with complete ease, balancing on one foot as she casually hopped to the next stone. Her unhurried presence clearly stated that she hadn't rushed to get to the playground in case she was keeping anyone wait, but Mugino didn't really care. It wasn't like there was anything better to be doing other than waiting around and thinking by this point.

Even so, Mugino had to frown at the question that completely threw her thought process off the subject it had been so focused on just a moment ago.

"Funerals? You mean, like ceremonies for dead people? I think they're pretty pointless. It's not like a dead person will be affected by that kind of thing. In the end, they're dead and they'll stay that way."

"I didn't mean it like that, exactly. Though, that's super depressing. As expected of someone who's killed more people than she's super cared to remember. Do you really not super feel any compassion for the morgues and funeral directors who make their money off of the super business of burying corpses?"

"The funeral itself it pretty pointless, but that's business. It's like selling 'get well soon' cards. People only bother with it because there is money involved. There is nothing wrong with that, but it's not like that kind of business even exists here in Academy City. Besides, you're not exactly free of blame when it comes to killing people either, Kinuhata."

"Yeah, but I'm not super cold about it." Kinuhata merely sighed as she focused on hopping diagonally to a distant stone, landing on the ball of her foot with perfect form. "But what I super meant by my question is 'what mood do you think they have'?"

"…Now I really don't get what you mean. Isn't that sort of thing obvious?"

Mugino tapped a finger impatiently on her on arm as she grimaced at Kinuhata, wondering if she should just move the conversation on to something more relevant on her own, but Kinuhata decided to clarify before Mugino could make that decision and act on it.

"On one of the forums I use, some super idiots started a sort of category game. The rules are kind of complicate and interesting, so I joined. One of the categories is 'celebrations', like a super birthday party. But someone decided to put 'funerals' under that category, and now a super thread has been made to discuss whether or not that's wrong. I mean, sure, funerals are super depressing and sad, where the family and friends say good bye. That's super clear. But in many cultures, funerals are considered a celebration of the deceased's super life. Both sides are technically right, but I can't super decide who to side with."

"Like I give a damn." Mugino pinched the bridge of her nose irritably, trying to keep herself calm. Had she expected a reasonable explanation from this eccentric girl? "There's no right or wrong answer. It's all just a bunch of semantics that varies with the person's opinion. No one's ever stopped to consider which perspective is technically correct."

"So it's super like 'beauty in the eye of the beholder'? But that doesn't really bring the discussion any closer to a super conclusion."

Kinuhata crouched down on the flat cobblestone she was standing on, sitting on her haunches as she pulled out her phone and began typing on it, no doubt making a response to the thread on the forum she had referred to. As usual, the position exposed her thighs beneath the knight dress and threatened others with a view of her panties, but no matter how one might have tried, they would never find a way to break the ingenious combination Kinuhata created. She spent a lot of her free time on researching ways to display as much of her legs as she could without showing anything unnecessary. Some might have found it vulgar, but once one considered it, it was actually quite impressive and may even be commendable in its own right. Though Mugino considered anyone who was willing to think that far into it a complete and total pervert worthy of being compared to a certain sla—lackey of theirs.

"Kinuhata, I've got a question for you." Mugino went on after a few moments of silence past, filled only by the sound of Mugino breathing as she arranged her thoughts and the sound of Kinuhata tapping on her phone. "Did you hear about the politician's double who was kidnapped?"

"Of course. The forums are super booming with that as well. What about it?"

Mugino frowned for a moment as she glared at the sky, considering her reasoning just once more.

"Well…isn't that all just made up? At first, it just bothered me a bit, but when I thought about it, it really doesn't make any sense. They say that they don't know who the culprit is or could be. But that doesn't explain why they announced it to the public. I mean, the one who was kidnapped was the double, not the real deal, right?"

"Hmm? Well I guess that's super true. Doubles are meant to get shot and kidnapped, just like a stunt double is super meant to jump off buildings and drive cars through walls."

"So why would they announce that the double had been caught? That's far from the normal procedure of things. Normally, they would just cast the guy aside like the lizard's tail and just focus on preparing to deal with the culprits by taking advantage of the situation while the real deal goes about business as usual. If they're announcing the kidnapping of the double, doesn't that mean they want the culprits to think they have the double? Or are the culprits just forcing this lie out before anyone can do something, so they have no choice but the go along with the lie the press is helping feed to the public?"

Kinuhata frowned as she continued to stare at her phone's screen, though the screen had gone dark a while ago. She seemed to consider Mugino's words carefully before replying.

"I get your reasoning, but there is super nothing to gain from either theory, is there? Why would anyone want the public to super think the fake was kidnapped?"

"Because that would mean the real politician was kidnapped, but no one knows that. In order to keep up appearances, who do you think is going to act as the politician for the time being?"

Kinuhata's eyes widened slightly as she understood and she rocked back on the balls of her feet, cocking her head slightly.

"I get it. The super double acts as the real politician and carries out business as they see fit. You think that the double is a spy or something like that and will super take advantage of the situation to do things the real politician would never do."

"What did the politician come here for, anyways?"

"Remember those terrorists that super attacked Hawaii and how some people from Academy City were involved—including Hamazura and that freak with the bondage outfit?"

"Yeah. A bunch of cooperative institutions that were once allied with Academy City severed their relationships with us because of that, right?"

"Exactly. I remember reading that this politician is a super spokesman for an institute that hadn't been involved with Academy City before. Now that we're down twenty-seven allies, they probably want to take super advantage of the space to cooperate with us."

Was the double trying to take advantage of this situation? It was pretty obvious that someone had to have been acting from the shadows to profit from all of this. The question was, who?

The fastest way to find out was to look at who was around the politician and branch out from there.

"Mugino," Kinuhata leaned forward slightly to peer at Mugino's face suspiciously. She seemed to move on from the specific subject of the politician—no doubt, she didn't really care. "Are you super thinking of getting involved with all of this? Don't tell me you were super inspired by the detective movie I showed you and now you want to go super solve a mystery?"

Mugino grimaced darkly at the question, realizing just how unable she was to properly answer it. So she stood straight abruptly and turning her back to Kinuhata as she clicked her tongue.

"Shut up. I just want to take a look. If it's just something petty, we'll just ignore it. I just don't like feeling like I'm missing something."

Kinuhata simply watched Mugino for a moment before she sighed, standing as well as she tried to shake out the wrinkles in her knit sweater.

"You know," Kinuhata murmured as she began walking toward Mugino with an amused smile on her face. "I'm willing to bet Hamazura is super involved somewhere down the road, knowing how super Hamazura-y he is."

* * *

...

Ciao, my friends. My fondness for Kinuhata and her many 'supers' grow. Franky from OP cool, but Kinuhata's the one who made the phrase epic in my mind. I give her full props for that.

I apologize if the explanation is confusing. It's a very essential part of the story and the details are pretty important, especially since there are so many sides to it. If you can't fully understand it yet, don't worry. The details will become clear with time.


	4. IV) The Back Alley Shadow

Heisuke Ryuunosuke. That was what the man had called himself. Kuroyoru accepted the possibility that it was an alias he used just to sound cool. If not, he was just a misfortunate person whose parents had expected too much. Although, that would be a bit harsh, considering his combat ability. With a sturdy body like the scales of a dragon, one could say (to an extent) that the name was fitting.

However, any respect for him that may have festered deep within Kuroyoru vanished when he asked him what he hoped to gain by helping her colleagues from Freshman.

"It was the perfect scenario. No one is watching in this dreary part of District 10 and the struggle would be lost in history. Little would anyone know, a lone avenger appeared to change the tide of things for the sake of justice."

Kuroyoru scoffed at the last word, nearly choking as she strode behind Heisuke, watching his slender underneath the hoodie that hid his face along with the ceramic clown mask.

"'Justice'? You're messing with me, aren't you? You got involved with the dark side for a stupid reason like that?"

"Justice is the sort of thing that is only right when it is done in the shadows, hidden away from the public. Otherwise, it's just a lie meant to make yourself look good."

Kuroyoru shook her head incredulously, well aware that she would never be able to get along with this guy. There were people in the world who would be motivated by some fake justice after all. Who knew?

Heisuke didn't seem to register her ridicule, as he continued on without paying any mind.

"What about you? Why are you fighting for some stranger in the dark alleys of Academy City's ghettos?"

"There is only one thing to gain from fighting for others in this day and age, and that's what makes the world go 'round."

"And what is that?"

"Money, of course."

Heisuke's body swiveled slightly so he could look in Kuroyoru's direction, disbelief reflecting in his eyes.

"Come on, I'm sure there's something more important to be gained from saving a life. Even if it's not for justice, there's more to life than money."

"Huuuuh?" Kuroyoru glared at Heisuke without sympathy. "What the hell else is there aside from money?"

"I guess...love?"

"Die."

There was a pause as both remained silent, one side radiating with opposition, the other side holding a murderous expression.

Kuroyoru repeated the single word carefully to make sure she wasn't misheard.

"Die."

The two continued walking, moving on from a subject neither would be change their mind on.

"Anyways, you don't look like the sort who'd give a crap about something like love." Kuroyoru said the word as if it left a bad taste in her mouth. "I thought you were a badass delinquent."

"It's not like I'm not." Heisuke sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "I've just been through a lot since the days when I was a part of a gang. I've changed."

"Into a pitiful sap?"

"What about you? Your movements aren't natural. I could tell from fighting you that something is off. Didn't you go through something major in the past? Maybe something that messed up your limbs?"

"Huh?" Kuroyoru frowned before she realized what he was referring to. "Ah, you mean my artificial parts. I'm a cyborg."

"A cyborg?" Heisuke repeated with a low whistle. "Cool. I've never met someone who's half robot. Did you get caught in big accident when you were younger, like a plane crash or something, like destroyed half your body, leaving you with no choice but to become a cyborg in order to survive?"

"As if, idiot! I'd be dead instantly if that sort of thing happened to my body! And that kind of thing isn't even your business. Especially since you're the type who'd hide his face all the time. You're probably trying to hide something to, so just get over your sappy curiousity."

"I resent that. I just wear it so no one realizes it's me when I dole out justice."

"Every time you say that damn word, I gag a bit. I figured you'd say you were in a horrible accident involving fire, had half of your face burned off, and hide the scar with the mask."

"…I'm not nearly that cool, and I don't think I'd have the will to live if something like that happened to me."

Heisuke came to a stop and Kuroyoru raised an eyebrow as he turned to her, raising his hands to his face to lower his hood and remove his mask.

Heisuke's face was handsome in a rugged manner, much like the bad boy style some girls may fawn over. He had short dirty blonde hair and a face that seemed perfectly sculpted to handle oncoming punches and simple blue eyes.

And yet he refused to meet Kuroyoru's eyes, keeping his gaze focused on the nearby walls or floor, as if he was nervous, though nothing about the way he spoke or his posture gave off such an aura.

"…Creep."

Kuroyoru strode ahead with a snort and Heisuke followed after her with a sigh as he stuck his ceramic mask into his hoodie for safe keeping.

"Leave me alone." Heisuke sighed as if he had expected this response. He kept his eyes on anything that wasn't her. "It's just a habit of mine. I can't stand to look directly at people."

"Are you having dirty fantasies from looking at a girl's body, you damn pervert?! I knew I should have just killed you before! Scum like you isn't needed in this world. It's a wonder you haven't been eradicated already."

"It's not like I can help who I am."

"Even if you happen to be a worthlessly hideous annoyance that serves no more purpose in life than to take up space. Just crawl into a hole and survive there by inhaling your own farts, rather than breathing to good air of normal people."

"…Have you ever heard the term verbal abuse?"

"Have you ever heard of limits to perversion? You can't even look at a girl who's wearing a trench coat."

"As if anyone would fantasize from looking at that flat childishly small body of yours…"

That one comment might have gotten Heisuke killed if Kuroyoru hadn't been distracted by the dead end they had reached. They'd essentially arrived at their destination; a single door standing in the wall of the dead-end, leading to a small and unimpressive room that had been abandoned by its previous owner for whatever reason. It was a good place to hide, since it was simply one among many possible places for a person to be in this alleyway.

"Right then," Kuroyoru sighed as she shot a look toward Heisuke. "You can get your sorry ass out of here for now. My men and I will take care of things, so you can go back to whatever little vigilante hole you crawl into when you're not messing with the lives of other people."

"You don't want me to get involved any further, am I right? There's no need to be embarrassed about it. It's kind of cute. But I like to see things through to the end."

"…Hey, shitty hero. You realize that I don't have any obligation to not kill you anymore, right?"

Kuroyoru's held her hand up threateningly as the real intent to fire a deadly lance of pure nitrogen directly at Heisuke welled up within her. In truth, she was already fed up with this guy. The only thing that interested her was his ability; could he really block her attacks unconditionally? That was doubtful. There was definitely a trick to it and she intended to find out what it was.

Heisuke merely frowned as she made such a hostile movement, continuing to refuse to look at her. That was another thing about him that annoyed her; there must have been a logical reason for him refusing to make eye contact, but he should at least sound a little more embarrassed when he spoke. It almost sounded like he wasn't really afraid of her and was mocking her by pretending to be.

All that aside, she really just felt the urge to attack him and see what he would do.

'_Hero' my ass._ That was her thought process when she considered what he had said. She spent her life in the 'dark side' doing what should have been heroic for the sake of Academy City, crushing the aspirations of countless idiots who believed that _they_ were the righteous ones. She'd seen half-assed heroism enough times to know that she wasn't one herself. No; if the dark side turned out to be some vigilante force of idiots who only did what was right, she'd no longer feel like she belonged there.

She _hated_ heroes.

But before she could follow through with her threat and attack Heisuke in cold blood, the wall before them abruptly exploded without warning.

Both Heisuke and Kuroyoru backed away quickly as the debris collapsed toward them, crouching low to avoid the errant pieces that might lodge themselves in their bodies. The explosion itself didn't affect them too much, as most of it had clearly been focused on the wall to destroy it, but the debris also served as a screen, preventing the two from clearly seeing what was going on as they heard several voices come from the other side of the destroyed walls.

"Hey, you bastards!" Kuroyoru called as recognized the frantic voices as two of her subordinates from Freshman. "What the hell is going on?!"

"B-Boss?!" One of the voices responded with a small amount of surprise that was covered by immediate urgency. "The target is escaping! He somehow blew up the wall with a strange ability all of the sudden and ran off! He's probably coming your way!"

"Our way…?" Kuroyoru muttered in disbelief as she narrowed her eyes. He was that reckless? But now that she looked, it seemed that her visibility was being cut even more drastically than the debris should have been capable of. It must not have all been smoke—the explosion had probably hit a water pipe or a radiator or something like that and sent steam spewing into the air. A person could easily walk right past her like this if they were quiet and careful not to run into her. If she just sat on her hands and waited around, she'd really less the person they'd been tasked to recover get away.

So she held up one hand and used it to manipulate the currents around the nitrogen lance she created, creating strong winds to blow away the dust and steam that was cutting her range of vision. Just as she did so, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and noticed a stout figure rushing away from her in a full sprint.

"Wait up, damn it!" Kuroyoru yelled as she whipped around, sending a nitrogen lance flying forward like an arrow shot from a bow, shredding apart the nearby walls and floor upon collision. She failed to stop the man as he turned a corner due to failing to hit him entirely, only reaching the area around his ankles without causing any injury. Naturally; if she really wanted to stop him, she should have just aimed for his legs. But damaging the man they were supposed to escort would have been problematic. If nothing else, she had to blame those idiots from Freshman who failed to explain to him that they had been trying to _save _him, and then let him get away so easily.

But punishing them would have to come later. Come to think of it, what string of logic had brought this guy to believe that he should run, when he'd previously been kidnapped and then rescued, albeit by shady figures? He was probably too terrified to think straight. It was crap like this that made playing the hero such a pain. Either way, she needed to stop that guy and incapacitate him immediately.

But before she could even start running, Heisuke suddenly grabbed one of her hands from behind, clasping it tightly so she couldn't break away easily as she whipped back around, stunned.

"What the hell—?" Kuroyoru began angrily right before Heisuke forcibly slammed both of their hands into a nearby pipe.

There was no pain since Heisuke had used his own hand to cushion the blow for Kuroyoru, but the shock was still jarring, sending a small shock up Kuroyoru's thin (and artificial) arm. The metal pipe had broken off when faced with the collision and twisted around both of their hands snugly, as if it had become soft and flexible momentarily. Kuroyoru tried to pry it off immediately with one hand, but it held fast.

"What the hell is this?!" She demanded as she glared daggers at Heisuke, but he'd already put his mask on to hide his face as he ignored her, looking in the direction their target had run off in.

Kuroyoru had all sorts of mixed feelings about having her small fingers intertwined with Heisuke's thick and rough fingers (mostly the kind of feelings that would end with her killing him, which didn't help the fact that she _already_ wanted to annihilate him with her level 4 Bomber Lance), but she put them aside as she focused on the mission she had to complete.

So the two were forced to run hand in hand down the alleyway after the runaway target. It was an eternal stain on Kuroyoru's life that she would strive to forget for as long as she lived.

* * *

...

Hello, my friends. Another chapter following the young member of the dark side who is part of Freshman. Just putting this out there, but does anyone else find it strange that Kuroyoru and Kinuhata (who should be the same age, being from the same project and all) are treated as being from different generations? Kinuhata is a graduate and Kuroyoru is a Freshman...that seems a bit inconsistent.

Anyways, this was fairly straight forward. This really helps set the next events that will be coming up. Soon enough, you'll be see a familiar cat with a difficult to place name. Till then, ciao!


	5. V) Inaction

"The plan is proceeding smoothly, Misaka says with severe doubts about how easily everything is going. Too smoothly, Misaka accentuates her point to make her fears and paranoia known."

"There's no need to keep telling me. I already understand your point. But even if you tell me, there is nothing to be done to fix the problem of everything going perfectly. We can only wait for someone to screw up somewhere and fix the situation then."

"I see." The apathetic Misaka 10032, also known as Misaka Imouto deadpanned as always as she regarded the one speaking. "In any case, Tokugawa Ieyasu, no one else seems willing to mention this particular situation, but it is becoming extremely awkward, Misaka finally points out the elephant in the room as if pushing a heavy weight off of her shoulders."

The point Misaka 10032 was trying to make was quite obvious, but could only be fully and fairly acknowledged and understood from a third person perspective. She was standing on the roof of a building that towered over an alleyway in the District 10, though they could not see what was going on below due to the many tarps that acted as a makeshift ceiling. An explosion had occurred in the very building she stood on, but she saw no need for concern, as the structure of the building remained sound.

To her, her presence was perfectly understandable, though anyone would have been confused by the sight of a young middle school girl standing on top of a building, wearing a pair of goggles and carrying a rifle slung over her shoulder.

What she was referring to was the cat that she was holding in her arms close to her chest as she always did. This particular feline seemed to be okay with the weak amount of electricity that radiated around the girl's body, despite the fact that most animals shied away when she approached. Ever since a certain boy suggested she keep it, she'd had the cat ever since.

But it had never actually spoken to her before.

Incidentally, there was a woman standing nearby in complete silence, standing with her arms folded across her chest and sporting a very eccentric hairstyle that resembled clouds, but she had such a lack of presence, she was completely ignored.

"Well, don't concern yourself with unnecessary complications that don't mean anything in the end." The cat that was once named 'Dog' due to bad naming sense on someone's part spoke in what the Japanese would identify as an 'old man's dialect' as it groomed itself casually. The method it used to speak was unknown, but it was not likely to be telepathy. "This was the best way to blend in naturally, so don't let it get to you too much and act naturally."

"Please excuse Misaka, but she could have sworn that you just suggested that a talking cat is normal enough to blend in. Schrödinger."

"What's with the change of name?! Tokugawa sounds a lot more impressive and incredible and less cruel than that horrible name! Your feelings about me have changed in the span of a second, haven't they? Haven't they?!"

Misaka 10032 deliberately ignored the cat's frantic whining as she focused her eyes on a small amount of movement between two sides of a nearby tarp that weren't drawn closely together enough to block everything that was going on below. It was only a small window that allowed for barely anything to be gleaned from any movement to be found, but it was enough to allow the clone to know that something was still happening below.

The cat turned its gaze in that direction as well, eyes narrowing to slits.

"It's too early to be sure about how things are going. They may seem to be working in our favor, but they might be working in the enemy's favor as well. We've done what we needed to, so it's time to end our turn. It's now East Wind—"

"Please do not make a reference to Mahjong in order to define your standing as an old man, begs Misaka before you can finish your sentence. It's unsettling."

"Hmph. You're just a youth who has lived for not even a year. You could never understand the joy of a legendary board game that takes years to master. In any case, it is now the enemy's turn. The only thing we can do is brace ourselves for the worst and hope that they screw up somewhere."

"Based on the thorough and well-planned actions thus far, Misaka believes that the chances of that occurring are less than ten percent. The efficiency and uniformity of the actions taken have changed abruptly since just a couple days ago, compared to the haphazard and chaotic style that had been observed at that time. It is doubtful they will be taking any risks this time."

"That's why we're bracing for the worst, child, and hoping for the best. There is no telling what they want with that Sister of yours, so we can't be sure of how far they're willing to go."

"…What could they want with the worst of the Misaka sisters, Misaka wonders aloud in a worried tone?"

"Don't worry so much. I'm here to help you, remember?"

"Misaka is not worried at all about that annoying aberrant who lives with the control tower."

"Oi…"

"Misaka is not worried at all, Misaka repeats while showing off a rare tsundere side to rival the Original."

The cat merely shook its head back and forth in exasperation, chuckling softly.

* * *

Mugino Shizuri grimaced darkly as she folded her arms across her chest, irritation rolling through her body along with impatience and displeasure.

She was in a standard family restaurant that seemed to be easily found in Academy City, probably due to the 80% population of students that often had family visiting them at any time of the year. She didn't really have anything like that, but she had taken a liking to them for whatever reason and often came to such places to eat.

With the many visits she'd paid to many of these restaurants, due to always going to the nearest one out of convenience, she has become relatively used to the atmosphere and could pretty much judge them accurately based on the location and people who ended up going there. It was strange how relaxing the atmosphere was—if she wasn't careful, she might let her guard down. It had happened before—about as often as the times she'd ended up being unable to go to a family restaurant for whatever reason. The reasons varied, but she was confident that none of them were her fault. Mostly, anyways.

"Where the hell is that damned waitress?!" Mugino demanded furiously as she slammed both hands on the table, her face resembling a devil's as she glared around with ferocious red eyes that clearly radiated with danger. "It's taking too freaking long to come with our food! And I'm thirsty!"

"Well, the lackey isn't super here to get our drinks, so that's our own fault." Kinuhata said consolingly with a small smile, swinging her legs back and forth in her seat. Unlike Mugino, who seemed to have her rage manifesting in red flames around her as she silently fumed, Kinuhata seemed to be in good spirits. "Besides, we're not super here for ourselves. It's a super negotiation tactic, right?"

Mugino clicked her tongue as she pinched the bridge of her nose as the humming of the girl sitting beside her reached her ears, fanning the flames of rage within the level 5's body that she was forced to contain and smother.

If she was just going to get mad, she would have known better than to agree to feed this little white nun for the sake of gaining information.

"—so he just disappears, that guy, and doesn't even leave a reasonable amount of food behind! The fridge had a snacks in it, but that amount doesn't even count as thoughtful since it didn't even last a single meal! Between that magic cabal boss and who knows what other girls, I bet he's giving his food to others without even remembering to have his own house in order! That's why I'm thankful that you brought me here to get some food before I starved to death! Total strangers are a lot more thoughtful that him! Is this that 'Japanese consideration' I'm always being told about? This is not the season for fasting, after all! Uwahaha…I can't wait to try that curry…hum, huhum…curry~"

"…Look," Mugino muttered irritably as she shot a glare at the grinning Kinuhata. Why was she so happy about this? "What we want to know, brat, is—"

"It's not 'brat'! My name is Index!"

"I don't care what your name is! You better not have been lying when you said you knew something about that politician from the news!"

"Of course not!" The nun with silvery hair grinned proudly as she puffed her chest out, speaking in a superior tone that made one of the veins in Mugino's temple pop. "A pious Christian like myself never lies, especially to kind people who feed me. Ah, curry~"

The strange nun named Index was immediately distracted as the waitress with an immodest smile finally came by and set the food down before them. Mugino resisted the urge to murder both the nun and the waitress who purposely stretched over the table to set Mugino's plate of food before her in order to accentuate her impressive breasts. The only thing that stopped her from following through was the fact that she didn't want to get them banned from another—no, no, that's wrong. She didn't want to be involved with another complicated situation that involved them being unable to return.

"Enjoy." The waitress smiled flirtatiously at them—possibly directly at Mugino. Oh, how she wanted to kill this annoying little… "It's best to hurry and eat it while it's hot."

"Mugino's super jealous."

"Do you want to be killed in the crossfire, Kinuhata?"

Kinuhata stuck her tongue out with a cute smile as Mugino clenched her hand around the small ball of light that appeared in the air beside her, extinguishing it as she reigned in her powers.

She returned her attention to the nun named Index, deciding to focus on what was important.

"Look, brat—"

"Another plate of curry, please!"

"That fast?!"

"I think we're going to need to make a super tab here."

They ended up having to order several plates of food at a time, so much so, it looked like a Manchu Han imperial Feast—a meal no normal group of three would be able to eat on a normal occasion.

"So," Mugino began again once some order returned and she prayed for the first time in her life that she wouldn't have to see that smug waitress flaunting her body one more time, or she swore she would murder that girl in cold blood by 'accidently' sneezing and letting a Meltdowner beam go off. "That politician…"

"He's a member of a big organization in Europe with a lot of experience with technology that wants to ally with Academy City."

"Let's start with the part that isn't common knowledge that has been reported in the news already." Mugino prompted as she sat back in her seat, folding her arms over her chest once more as she shut her eyes to allow herself to focus on thinking. "Something stinks about that man's situation. You said you knew something about that, didn't you?"

"mff, mnnotguryeoreuking—"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, you idiot! And why are you reaching across the table for more food?! Finish what's in front of you, damn it! IN. FRONT. OF. YOU!"

Kinuhata had to pry Index's hands off of several plates of food that seemed to be dragged toward the nun instinctively, as if she were a black hole. The food that was right in front of her wouldn't last long.

"Start again; without food in your mouth!"

"*ahem*" Index coughed to clear her throat, one of her hands already dragging a nearby plate of food toward her, away from Kinuhata. "I'm not sure why you're looking into it to begin with, but I guess I should start by mentioning that Karlos Litchenburg is not originally from the science side."

"What do you super mean by that?"

"He's originally from the Roman Catholic Church. He was a big figure in a small faction that was trying to gain political influence as they focused on bible study. They were trying to bring about another reformation and caused quite a bit of trouble for the Church and even the laymen who didn't want change to mess up their daily lives."

"A religious revolutionary, huh?" Mugino muttered without humor. What a stupid and boring backstory that man had. She could already guess what happened next. "The Church decided to weed out his group, am I right? Since he was in trouble or pressured in some way, he abandoned his pointless ideals and joined the organization he works for now in order to save his own skin, becoming a spokesman for their scientific ideals."

"Exactly. He was lucky to have survived this long, but I doubt he'll make it any further. Even if he's come to the city that is the center of the science world, those people in Carnificus will stop at nothing to catch him, even if they strain the relationship that both sides worked so hard to fix."

"But that doesn't super explain everything." Kinuhata pointed out as she laid her head on her arms on the table in a lazy manner. "They intend to kill him? Which means the kidnapping was a cover-up? But then, why lie about the double being caught? Who is the super fake they have acting in his stead?"

"Hm?" A vague look of confusion crossed Index's face as she looked at Kinuhata blankly, dozens of shrimp sticking out of her mouth in a comical manner. "Fake? Lie? I don't get it. Is it tasty?"

Mugino sighed as she touched a finger to her forehead. This girl hadn't figured out the ruse, and it seemed unlikely that she was faking ignorance. The credibility of the information wasn't certain, but it was hard to make up that sort of thing. It must have been connected to everything somehow. But how? Was there a motive behind it all?

"Carnificus…" Mugino repeated the word under her breath, noting how the foreign name itself seemed sharp on her tongue, like a deadly axe. "Just who are—"

Wait. Wait just a moment.

Where the hell did her food go?

"Ah~" Index sighed contentedly as she patted the slight bulge that was her stomach. "You really must be on par with true saints to give me such a great meal. Touma never feeds me this much."

"You brat!"

The entire restaurant shook as Mugino shot too her feet, as if trembling at the birth of a ferocious demon. But that wasn't it. Everything was shaking due to a tremor that seemed to go through the ground, as if something had exploded in the distance. Mugino's eyes immediately looked out the window to find the distance sight of smoke rising in the distance.

"A traffic accident?" Mugino wondered aloud. "That's rare."

"A part of a rail for the rain crashed to the ground for some reason." Kinuhata reported as she scrolled through her phone quickly. "It super destroyed one of the cars escorting the politician we're investigating."

"Wow~ The circulation of information these days is really incredible, isn't it? Touma uses his phone to look things up sometimes too, now that I think about it."

Index seemed to be in awe as she stared at the phone with an expression no one from the city of technology would make at such a simple jewel of modern science. She seemed completely oblivious to the urgent atmosphere that had abruptly descended on the family restaurant.

"Kinuhata!" Mugino called over her shoulder as she strode toward the door to leave. "We might learn something if we head over there before Anti-Skill shows up."

"You're super into this, huh?" Kinuhata unhesitatingly followed after Mugino, leaving Index behind, who was no looking confused as she looked from the smoke outside the window to their retreating backs. After a moment of silence, she hopped to her feet, grinning triumphantly.

"If you insist, I suppose I can tag along as thanks for the food—"

"You'd better super hurry up or we'll leave you behind."

"Ah! W-Wait for meeeeeee!"

Index rushed after them as Kinuhata called back to her casually, showing every intention of being fine with leaving the nun behind.

The waitress saw them off at the door, forcing herself to maintain her fake smile, though she clearly felt differently about them rushing off to a dangerous area without paying. She must have figured it didn't matter either way, since it would be dangerous to take the money of people who would go to such a place without considering the consequences. She must have valued her safety, after all.

"Please have a nice day."

Mugino merely shot a look back at her that said '_I'll be back for you later_' before picking up the pace with long strides, forcing the other two girls to run after her down the sidewalk.

* * *

...

And so it begins. I really don't have much to say here, aside from the fact that I wish to English language had as many different dialects as Japanese. I mean, seriously-just by the words they use and structure of the sentence, you can tell if a Japanese person is an old man, child, male, female, and so on. So you'll just have to pretend Misaka 10032's cat is speaking like an old man using your imagination. Also, for reference, I'll be calling the cat 'the cat' when necessary, rather than its randomly chosen names for the time being.

The next chapter will revolve around a paranoid ninja!


End file.
